Rory McIlroy was "ecstatic" after continuing his fightback from a woeful start at The Open by moving firmly into contention with a second-round 68 at Royal Birkdale.
"The back nine is playing really, really hard, so to birdie three of the first six and give myself that little bit of a cushion to play with was nice".
Kuchar dropped a shot at the second but then picked up his game spectacularly, with a chip in for a birdie at the third, when he seemed in danger of dropping another shot.
"I went out and believed in myself from the first tee shot, hit it within 60 yards of the green and went from there".
"It's just one of those things where if it starts going bad in these conditions, it's just going to go bad", said Mickelson, who made just one par in a back nine of 40.
McIlroy was adamant in the build-up to the tournament that his best form wasn't far off - despite three missed cuts in his last four events.
"I was very proud of myself that I hung in there and tried to stay as positive as I possibly could", he said.
"I thought if I could keep it under par for the championship I'm right there for the weekend". At least I feel I got myself back out of the hole I was in and get back into the tournament. I just have to try to keep that going for the next two days.
That expected wind and rain should make for a fascinating second round, but it's an opportunity for McIlroy to make a statement early on Friday. "I thought par would be a decent score on my first attempt". Maybe tonight when I watch a little golf it'll sink in but I'm pretty chuffed.
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|By Simon Evans
"It's easy to say when you are playing good golf, but with Rickie Fowler in the group in front of us and Matt doing well the atmosphere was brilliant".
"Even though there's a lot of golf left in other circumstances it might have been a disappointing day but just with the way I finished, I feel really good about it".
"It feels even better that I had to go through qualifying to get here".
"I'm an early riser so I followed the guys going off really early and the first hole looked like to be playing about a par six".
His one-under round still leaves him six shots back of the lead and not exactly in the hunt at the moment.
McIlroy said he's experienced, "a bit of lack of confidence just over the last couple of weeks, and just letting that get in my head a little bit".
"There was a lot of quality out there and I was happy to see that".
"The long iron I hit into the 17th was nearly like a validation that you're fighting for it and you're mentally where you need to be". These are the four biggest tournaments of the year, and you want to go out there and shoot a good score and get off to a good start.
Seaplane disabled in East River, passengers rescued, FDNY says
He was the creator of Scrubs, the hit medical sitcom that ran for nine seasons on NBC and ABC. It's now unknown why the plane was forced to land and didn't reach its destination.
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